Salut/Hi Larry,

le/on Fri, 02 Apr 2004 17:29:16 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

Sorry about the late reply, but I had to rescan my message base to see this,
it got zapped first time round.

>Visited your website. Cottage looks fabulous. Have never been to
>France but would love to stay in a small village or at least tour as
>many as possible.

It's just a little cottage, stone built, of no great merit, but we've done
it up to be as comfortable as we could. This is an area of little villages,
perhaps 30 years behind the times. We love it. You can leave the front door
unlocked and not be afraid at night. Coming from London, as we did, that's a
luxury of inestimable worth.

>Is your interest and knowledge( based on your numerous and informative
>posts) of wine a result of entertaining your many guests or something
>that would have happened anyway?

I used to be a freelance chef, doing directors' lunches special dinners etc
in London, but with little knowledge of wine. Some friends took my wine
education in hand when I was around 35 and I avidly learnt all I could (both
by tasting and reading). I found (and still do) the marriage of food and
wine fascinating, and it became my hobby, which rapidly spilt over into
business, as people asked me first to recommend matches for the dishes I
cooked, then to get more of the same or other wines, and occasionally to
manage their cellars.

So I went to auctions (with pre-auction tastings) to trade fairs, on wine
visits to various areas (mainly France) and continued learning. So, to get
round to answering your question, no, it's not really the guests we have
here that have contributed much to my interest although some most certainly
DO do so.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website